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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Skewered for ‘Craptastic’ Lawsuit Against Dominion and Smartmatic That Alleges ‘Ghosts in the Machines’

Aaron KellerJun 4th, 2021, 12:58 pm
 

Mike Lindell complains about the election on Steve Bannon’s podcast.

MyPillow CEO and election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell on Thursday filed an 82-page civil lawsuit in federal court against voting technology companies Dominion and Smartmatic. Seventeen exhibits, all adding up to hundreds of pages, are attached — many of which are demand letters by Dominion accusing Lindell of “lying” about the outcome of the 2020 election and warning him he faced legal jeopardy if he continued to press claims “that the election had been stolen.” The letters, which preceded Dominion’s separate lawsuit against Lindell, said Lindell’s complaints about the election were really nothing more than a “defamatory marketing campaign” which “boosted” Lindell’s “sales considerably,” therefore “financially enrich[ing]” Lindell “by selling more MyPillow products to Trump supporters.”

Lindell’s separate complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, is in essence a legal counter-offensive. It is replete with multiple quotes from George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Lindell’s case also contains allegations that the various elections technology company defendants were — and are — attempting to illegally shut Lindell up by threatening and then filing their own defamation lawsuits against him several weeks back. Lindell’s suit cites Wikipedia to allege a mathematical-style equation he claims describes the companies’ litigation against him: “Lawsuit Warfare = Lawsuit + Warefare = Lawfare.” Various sections of the lawsuit are entitled “The Rise of the Machines,” “Strange Bedfellows,” “Ghosts in the Machines,” “Gaslighting: The REAL Big Lie,” and “Shut Up or Else.”

The filing has been described as a “nonsense,” “half-assed,” “craptastic legal job” filled with “baloney” and “lunacy” that is even “cringier and more incoherent than” than even Lindell’s critics expected. One attorney called it a “flaming bag stuffed with feces” because it attempts to litigate similar issues in a separate U.S. District Court from where Dominion sued Lindell originally — among other alleged transgressions.

Lindell seems undeterred by his critics.

“Mike Lindell brings this lawsuit to stop electronic voting machine companies from weaponizing the litigation process to silence political dissent and suppress evidence showing voting machines were manipulated to affect outcomes in the November 2020 general election,” the lawsuit begins.

Another paragraph in essence summarizes much of the case:

Lindell will prove that the Dominion Defendants, acting in concert and as part of an unlawful enterprise alongside the Smartmatic Defendants, have weaponized the court system and the litigation process in an attempt to silence Lindell’s and others’ political speech about election fraud and the role of electronic voting machines in it. In the specific context of political speech about something as vital to a republican form of government as election integrity, no litigant should be permitted to use the courts and the litigation process as a bludgeon to suppress and stifle dissent. But that is what the Dominion Defendants and Smartmatic Defendants have done. Many of their victims lack the resources to fight back and expose the defendants’ scheme for what it is—an authoritarian abuse of state power fueled by the virtually unlimited resources from their ideological comrades. But Mike Lindell has the resources and the will to fight back, albeit at great personal and financial cost; Mike Lindell believes the future of the American republic depends on fighting back against censorship of information concerning the fundamental aspect of our republic—fair and secure elections. So Mike Lindell brings this suit to bring a stop to the defendants’ abuses of the legal system and protect Americans’ right to speak freely on matters of the utmost public concern.

Included in the case are several paragraphs presented as “fact” which would be better dubbed as conclusions or allegations. For instance, part of the case reads as follows: “Fact: Voting machine companies like Dominion are state actors by virtue of their roles running elections in the United States—an essential state function.” That’s a legal conclusion, not a fact. And Lindell further alleges as “fact” that his alleged “state actors” cannot suppress, punish, or intimidate his “political dissent” about the 2020 election which ousted Donald Trump from the White House.

Lindell argues six counts in total against various defendants: abuse of process (against Dominion only); defamation (against Dominion only); RICO violations (against both Dominion and Smartmatic); violations of the “support and advocacy” clause of a federal statute which forbids people from conspiring to interfere with civil rights, including voting (against both Dominion and Smartmatic); deprivations of civil rights by actions taken under color of state law (against Dominion only); and civil conspiracy (against all defendants). Lindell is asking for special damages, damages for alleged defamation, treble damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and costs.

Attorney Alec J. Beck of Minneapolis signed the complaint (but is apparently already out of a job at the Barnes & Thornburg firm); attorneys Douglas A. Daniels and Heath A. Novosad of Houston have submitted applications pro hac vice to represent Lindell.

Lindell’s recent moves have been met with derisive scorn from many legal observers — including none other than Jenna Ellis, the attorney who sat and stood side by side with Rudy Guliani and, on one memorable occasion, Sidney Powell to raise questions about the 2020 election.

Ellis might have been responding to Lindell’s comments prior to the lawsuit’s filing about what Lindell believes were Chinese attempts to meddle with the election through voting machines. He boasted that his allegations would reach the Supreme Court of the United States by July by advancing evidence which — in his view — is as strong as blood DNA at a crime scene.

“So, when the Supreme Court looks at this, they don’t get to say 5-4, or 6 to 3, or 7 to 2,” Lindell posited. “It has to be 9-0 because all you’re asking them is — just like — ‘is this white,’ or, you know, ‘is this the color white?'”

The Supreme Court doesn’t settle factual disputes. The Supreme Court only settles legal disputes.

Other critics cut harshly into Lindell’s claims in the separate but related Dominion case. Here’s a sampling:

Some noted that Giuliani himself is now selling MyPillows:

Read the lawsuit for yourself:

[Featured image of Mike Lindell via Twitter video screengrab]

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Aaron Keller - Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Aaron Keller holds a juris doctor degree from the University of New Hampshire School of Law and a broadcast journalism degree from Syracuse University. He is a former anchor and executive producer for the Law&Crime Network and is now deputy editor-in-chief for the Law&Crime website. DISCLAIMER:  This website is for general informational purposes only. You should not rely on it for legal advice. Reading this site or interacting with the author via this site does not create an attorney-client relationship. This website is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Speak to a competent lawyer in your jurisdiction for legal advice and representation relevant to your situation.

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